Websites Like Thumbtack: Business Model, Features, Monetization, and More

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It’s about creating an On-demand staffing services provider or a Task Marketplace Websites like Thumbtack - it's a template to simplify the search for professionals to do household chores!

What is Thumbtack?

Wondering what is Thumbtack? It is an online service, one of its kinds that connect customers with local professionals. It lists > 1,100 types of services in various categories like home, wellness, events, and lessons etc. It is helpful when you need to hire anyone like a choreographer, a music band, a DJ, a handyman, or just about anyone who can ease your routine tasks. Thumbtack makes your business visible to the customers in real-time with profiles, ratings and more. They can filter the results and suit themselves with any jobs-job-doers that match their requirements. Thumbtack is a B2B marketplace connecting customers with service providers. As on one hand, it helps businesses scale up, they as well help customers looking to get their tasks done.

Thumbtack alternative apps like TaskRabbit does not restrict its areas of specialization and is created on the lines of Craigslist. It is one of the biggest representatives in its niche and is often called the Amazon of home services.

Who Is This For?

Thumbtack for Homeowners – Thumbtack is a company that provides professionals to perform home service. Homeowners can register on the platform, choose the service type, select the professional according to the availability and price and they are good to go.

Thumbtack for Companies – It can be used by companies to find clients. They can access highly qualified leads that exactly match the types of jobs they want. Thumbtack has features to protect against automatic lead discounts based on competition as well as a 48-hour refund policy for customers who do not want to bid or respond.

How Does Thumbtack Work?

Being professionals, Thumbtack will take some more details before fulfilling your request. So in case you wish to get any part of your house painted, Thumbtack might ask – who is paying for the paint, is there any kind of wall damage (Peeling or flaking paint, Trim pulling away from the house, Water damage, Cracks, Bare wood and Chipped stucco etc.), how many coats of paint are required, what type of material will be painted or any other details specific to the job.

Can Thumbtack Leads Be Fake?

There are minimal or no chances of scam or fake task requests from Thumbtack. Customers come to Thumbtack to hire professionals who can help them out with their projects. They never ask customers to pay to send a quote if it’s not the perfect fit for their businesses.

Is the Thumbtack App Free?

Thumbtack has its presence on the web, iOS and Android mobile apps. It lets users do their research; hire the local service providers after checking peer reviews. Some businesses and professionals specialize in a variety of categories including home improvements, small businesses, pets, gardening, hair-cuts, photography, wellness and more.

Thumbtack Business Model

Monetization Option

  1. Advertising: Thumbtack does not earn money via advertising.
  2. Commission: Thumbtack gets some profit from the commission – a percentage (20% for each lead) from the payment for completing a job and pay-per-lead model – where a fixed fee is charged for a lead connected with a Tasker.
  3. Subscription: They provide a freemium package of basic features or lead limits to allow users to upgrade for advanced opportunities.
  4. Thumbtack Partner Network: Thumbtack has partnered with Nextdoor, Inc. and received an affiliate commission from purchases. This platform has become the go-to platform for all those looking for quick help and simultaneously saves time.

Value Propositions

For Platform

  • Thumbtack acts as a mediator between service seekers (customers who list their tasks) and service providers (businesses who provide skilled people), what customers pay is directly proportional to what Thumbtack provides.
  • Service providers can be hired easily via Thumbtack
  • It helps small businesses to scale up
  • Its annual revenue has crossed 1 Million
  • It acts like a unicorn when it comes to services that it offers (from house painting to event planning, Monogram a Chevron Canvas, filling up that empty vase, personalizing that wooden chair, converting Styrofoam cones into Christmas trees and music to long-distance moves)

For Taskers

  • Background check for specialists
  • No cash electronic payments with escrow
  • Insurance guarantee or ‘no-show’ reimbursement for tasks

For TaskDoers

  • They get a place to advertise their skills and services and get leads to scale up their business.
  • They get to work on a convenient schedule and manage their work time as they wish
  • Get money as the task is completed
  • Expand their network with a rating and review system on the platform

How are customers benefitted?

  • They get their projects done
  • Thumbtack is accessible, convenient and easy to use
  • It is an online and mobile marketplace where the listing and quoting is free
  • It is self-service

Target Audience

  • Thumbtack caters to the customers who seek services from qualified local professionals
  • Thumbtack caters to the small and medium-sized businesses which act as service providers seeking customers

How Does Thumbtack Make Money?

Thumbtack does not charge any commission from customers for posting jobs on the app platform. They only have to pay for leads. A single credit costs $1.50 – $1.42 (if bought in bulk). Thumbtack assists the contractors as they get what they pay for. Professionals have an option to start with a 10 quote package at a 30% discount. After selecting these, they may select the credit package to go with. The total number of credits required to send a quote might vary depending upon the type of service requested. Service providers have to pay some fee to have their businesses listed on the platform. It is up to the merchant to choose either paying an upfront lead fee or a percentage of a job if they get it.

Where is it available?

On the website, on the mobile app, iOS, Android, Social Media, Events, Search Engines Optimization (SEO) and verbally

At what places it is present?

  • It is already a very strong brand
  • It has served across 1100 categories and has handled more than 5 million projects
  • Its programmers are its key resources
  • It thrives on seed funding

How to Develop Websites like Thumbtack

Development Best Practices involved in Thumbtack include continuous integration, extensive documentation, pairing, shared codebase, code reviews, QA, weekend reviews and likewise. Including these and more, some basic steps need to be considered while creating an app like Thumbtack:

Creating a Minimum Viable Product – This helps at the time of user acceptance testing (UAT). It is good to decide possible features to add to the app in advance to avoid the last-minute hassle. Of course, the agile model will accommodate Adhoc modifications according to the client’s needs and market demand. To start with, sign up and sign-in will be primary, search and matching, Payment Gateway with various modes of payment will be there, account or personal profile of taskers and customers – including order history and transaction details, plus there will be Job Postings for Task Givers, communication via chat/call/emails and reviews.

Technology Stack of Websites Like Thumbtack

The existing technology stack of Thumbtack can be rewritten, to extend the legacy code to meet the current day standards or to add in some new features, modules, and functionality.

  • Frontend: Angular migrating to React
  • Backend: PHP with Scala and Go backend services
  • Mobile: Java moving to Kotlin; Objective-C moving to Swift; backend in Python
  • Database: DynamoDB, Postgres, and Elasticsearch
  • Infrastructure Provisioning & Management: GCP Deployment Manager, Terraform, Puppet
  • Data Infrastructure: Cloud Dataproc + Scala/Spark, Airflow, BigQuery

Challenges of Creating Websites Like Thumbtack Task Marketplaces

  • The competition is fierce
  • The distinguishing traits of the local market
  • The uneven demand and supply
  • And many other errand-runner marketplaces:
  • USA – TaskRabbit, Takl, Zaarly, Handy, NeedTo, SoManyErrands, KonstantRunner, Bizzby
  • Canada – TaskRabbit, AskForTask, Bizzby, Handy, LocalHeroes
  • UK – TaskRabbit, Bizzby, ErrandPlusPSLTD, Handy
  • Europe – StarOfService, Bewertet, Homebell, Haushelden, ServiceFinder, Hazmeprecio, Favore, Fazland
  • Australia and New Zealand – AirTasker, MichellesErrandService, MyErrandGirl, NoCowboys
  • Southeast Asia – TaskAmigo, GoGet
  • Africa – Isamado, TaskIt, ErrandWorld
  • Russia – YouDo

Thumbtack Alternatives

TaskRabbit, Wonolo, Amazon Mechanical Turk, 99Designs, Work Market, Design Contest, Jobble, Design Crowd, BidWilly, Agent Anything, Upshift, Zaarly, Gentask, Helpware, Fusion Event Staffing, Coople, VOICEOVERS.com, Fancy Hands, Rota and Catapult etc.

thumbtack alternatives

What Should You Prefer Thumbtack or TaskRabbit?

The on-demand marketplaces for household chores depend severely on the demand and supply sufficiency. Having fewer jobs and more taskers will eventually make them lose interest. Similarly, job posters cannot keep waiting for the taskers to register on the platform either. They will do it by themselves as and when they get time. In some cases, task posters or the clients even initiate the task on their own till any of the taskers get attracted.

Both Thumbtack and TaskRabbit are based on On-Demand Staffing Services. TaskRabbit is beneficial when it comes to taking a hold of random chores around your home. These are freelancers. But Thumbtack provides professional home services like an actual company.

A Quick Comparison Chart Thumbtack vs TaskRabbit

DifferencesTaskRabbitThumbtack
By DefinitionTaskRabbit provides skilled freelancers (background checked) to help customers complete their household chores, errands etc. They are capable of doing anything urgent.Thumbtack is an amazing resource to perform home service. It uses machine learning to match customers with the right project.
Professional StructureIt is an individual service provider.It is an actual company.
Examples of ServicesThey are good at fixing or filling in the gaps – if not a major biggie – these guys will help you in assembling furniture, pulling that top-heavy box, planting and watering flowers, cutting grass, cleaning a space or arranging goods to make some space in a specific room.They target customers who are looking for long term services like installing the floor, painting interiors and exteriors of the house, mural or cabinet painting, cleaning the house or replacing faucets, renovating walls, or even summer lawn care – almost everything on-demand.

We Have A Fix For All Your Development Queries

How often we feel like sleeping for 8 hours in 3 hours (even Google search would be flummoxing), or to have an additional 24 hours in a week or an extra pair of hands to (X100) your task in hand. Now saving time to make your kids happy or simply have some time off the work and do what you like is easy with on-demand handyman marketplace websites  like Thumbtack and many Thumbtack alternatives like TaskRabbit, it is now easier, safer, and quicker to call someone to help us out. It’s that simple. We work with plenty of technologies, tools, platforms – which one would you choose for your next handyman apps like Thumbtack. Thanks for stopping by, we hope that this illustration was helpful. Looking forward to creating your economy marketplace for taskers? We have adequate research and experience in creating such applications – right from value propositions, monetization options, and the competitive landscape; want to grab a bite? Drop a message.

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About Author
Vipin Jain

Vipin Jain

Vipin Jain is the Co-Founder and CEO at Konstant Infosolutions and is in charge of marketing, project management, administration and R&D at the company. With his marketing background, Vipin Jain has developed and honed the company’s vision, corporate structure & initiatives and its goals, and brought the company into the current era of success.

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